Discussion

DRS. LEWIS AND LANDIS have offered us a fertile paper whose frame of reference allows for the integration of various theoretic points of view, including the object-relational aspects of the more traditional Freudian approach, the object-relations theory of the English group, as well as the interpersonal point of view. This is made possible by organizing in a systematic way their observations around the concept of specific modes of relatedness that can be observed in an interpersonal field. It is refreshing to read the authors' development of the loose global notion of "symbiosis" into the differentiated modes of symbiotic relatedness, making possible an immediate application of our clinical experience to real, live relationships between people.

I would like to focus on one issue that is both explicit and implicit throughout their paper; that is the issue of individuation. Unfortunately scientific conceptions such as symbiosis and individuation quickly take on value-judgments of good and bad, of mature and immature. So it is that to be "individuated" is assumed to be more mature than "symbiotic." However to achieve a healthy symbiotic relationship is in itself a foundation to the rest of human development. Thus all these conceptions—symbiosis, individuation,